Dolores Park — “loved to death” — ready for its makeover, at $12.4 million

Dolores Park, which city officials described as being “loved to death” by the more than 5,000 visitors it gets most weekend days, is finally getting its long-awaited makeover.

The Recreation and Park Commission Thursday approved a $12.4 million construction contract, with work slated to begin in March.

The city put together a strategic plan for the rehab effort in 2000 and had money for the project in the 2008 park bond. But since then there have been long, loud and continuing arguments in the community about just what changes should be made, covering everything from dog runs to bathrooms to the concrete pathways needed to make the park, designed in 1905, accessible to the handicapped.

Planned improvements include repair and renovation of the basketball and tennis courts, landscape improvements, a new irrigation system and better lighting, as well as removal and replacement of the existing — and aging — restroom building.

The work, however, comes with a price and it isn’t just money. About half the 13.7-acre park will be closed as work proceeds on each phase of the construction, which is expected to be completed by spring 2015.